Last updated: June 18, 2026
Place
Fish Springs
NPS Photo
Quick Facts
Location:
Fish Springs Pony Express Station site. Refuge entrance GPS: 39.839583 -113.399625 Site GPS 39.8501388889 -113.3964166667 is in Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, 8545 North Auto Tour Route Fish Springs, 25 miles east of Callao, UT. Accessed via BLM’s Pony Express National Historic Trail Backcountry Byway.
Significance:
A Pony Express and Overland Stage station operated at Fish Springs in the early 1860s.
Designation:
Historic site on the Pony Express National Historic Trail.
MANAGED BY:
Amenities
9 listed
Parking - Auto, Parking - Boat Trailer, Parking - Bus/RV, Picnic Shelter/Pavilion, Picnic Table, Scenic View/Photo Spot, Toilet - Vault/Composting, Trash/Litter Receptacles, Wheelchair Accessible
Fish Springs is a 10,000-acre, spring-fed wetland at the south edge of the Great Salt Lake Desert salt flats, where it provides critical habitat for fish, migratory birds, and other wildlife. Today this oasis and surrounding lands are protected within Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, but for at least 11,000 years it was an important hunting and gathering place for desert-dwelling Native Americans.
In 1859, Captain J. H. Simpson, leading a team of US Army Topographical Engineers, established a mail station at Fish Springs. As the most abundant source of water—tepid and brackish though it was—between Camp Floyd and Deep Creek, Fish Springs Station became an important stop for all mail contractors, the Pony Express, the Overland Stage, and the later transcontinental telegraph. The original station, located near House Spring about a mile from the refuge entrance, is described as a simple stone structure with a brush and dirt roof, but nothing is left of it but a scattering of small debris. A silver-colored fencepost marks its location, and a stone monument built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s stands alongside the Pony Express Rd less than a mile northwest of the refuge entrance.
Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge is 75 miles from the closest town with any services, and reaching it from the east requires driving some 80 miles of gravel roads. There are no food establishments, fuel stations, or other services along that stretch.
To approach from the east along the Pony Express National Historic Trail Backcountry Byway, use your smartphone mapping app to navigate to Simpson Springs Station. From there, drive southwest on Simpson Springs-Callao Rd for about 31 miles. Continue west as the road becomes Pony Express Road. In 10.6 miles turn right into the refuge. Pass the visitor center and the maintenance yard and keep right on Harrison Pool Loop Rt 106. In about 0.8 mile, turn into the shady picnic area on the right. The station site is on the opposite side of the road.
Site Information
Location (Fish Springs Pony Express Station site. Refuge entrance GPS: 39.839583 -113.399625 Site GPS 39.8501388889 -113.3964166667 is in Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, 8545 North Auto Tour Route Fish Springs, 25 miles east of Callao, UT. Accessed via BLM’s Pony Express National Historic Trail Backcountry Byway.)